balding angrily

Yesterday’s post got me thinking about multi-culturalism, and I remembered a story. Jerry will like this story because it makes him look like something other than stinky. He taught me something rather profound. It started with sushi.

Before I met Jerry I considered myself adventurous with food. I had tried and liked both Indian and Ethiopian food. But I never learned to like sushi. So Jerry talked me into sushi one night.

I didn’t dislike it on my first experience, but it was a distinctly different way of experiencing tastes. I grew up with a Cassarole Mama; I’m used to blended, saucy foods. I shared this with Jerry. I said, “This is just strange. Not bad. Just different. It’s like there’s all these distinct tastes in my mouth, and they’re not mixing like I’m used to. They’re staying next to each other, but not informing one another. Well, not informing one another in the way I’m used to.” I’m sure I wasn’t that articulate, but that was the jist.

Jerry said, “That’s the neat part of sushi. It’s kind of an Eastern philosophy of food.”

He continued. “I went to a presentation on multi-culturalism one time. The speaker had this broad, accented voice. And he said, ‘The problem with you Americans is your concept of multi-culturalism. Look at your metaphor. The Melting Pot. You think multi-culturalism is this pot where all these races get thrown in and mixed around until you’re this…this marmalade.’ And with ‘marmalade’ he dragged it out like marmil-laaahd. ‘Everything is the same, and the tastes are diluted until it tastes like I don’t know what.’”

Here I imagine this speaker to have the voice of Robert Guillaume from The Lion King and with “marmil-laaahd” he waved his hands with their jointed fingers in front of Jerry’s face like two Kabuki fans.

Still quoting the speaker, Jerry said, “‘Look at the Eastern philosophy of multi-culturalism. Look at the Yin-Yang. The white and the black, they stay distinct. They exist next to each other, but they do not mix. But they also do not exist apart.’”

“‘Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying separate but equal or that the races should be segregated. I’m saying, look at it like a mosaic. You have all these distinct colors, each brilliant on their own, and when they come together they make a sparkling thing.’”

I think about this whenever I think about issues of race. I also think about it whenever I eat sushi, which I now love. See, Jerry is very smart. And he’s a good teacher.

Now here’s a picture of him being a spastic dork in a hammock.